The Great Cookie Caper of 05 is going down on Sunday.

We’re having a family cookie swap on Sunday.

I’m excited by this, because it will give me an endless variety of Christmas cookies to distribute to the masses. But it’s not preventing me from making entirely too many other kinds of cookies. It’s almost like a disease with me. I find a recipe. I want to make it. I must make it. This is how I end up with 6 different kinds of cookies before I even attend the swap.

It’s a sickness. Really.

So t and I are just getting over our severe bouts with gastroenteritis or something similar when my cousin RSVPs to say that she’s coming and bringing chili.

Are you out of your cotton-picking mind? Bring the girls who spent all weekend on the potty some chili. Please. Add extra beans. Why not. And if you have time, why don’t you whip up some sauerkraut?

This year I’m making eggnog spritz cookies (with my press), chocolate truffle cookies, rum balls and Mexican tea cakes all on my own. In addition to these, I’m also making macaroons and jelly thumbprint cookies for the swap.

A note on Christmas cookies. I’m making a horde of them because I plan a mass-distribution of cookies to the following people that I really love as well as those who I don’t feel particularly close to, but would like to acknowledge because I like them if rarely talk to them

Another note on Christmas cookies: you inevitably will get stuck with the kind that you don’t like. That’s what makes cookie swaps so great. You can totally upgrade your cookies. Go in with something easy to make – like say, 7th grade home ec snickerdoodles -- and come out with macaroons. Cookie swaps are the great equalizer for chefs and not-sous chefs.

The downside about cookie swaps is that you will inevitably end up with at least a dozen cookies that you don’t like. Those are the ones you bring to someone’s house. So if you are the person who’s hosting, you inevitably will end up with 3 trays full of not so great cookies.

And that folks, is why I’m making 216 cookies in flavors that I like.